Bush team ensconces political employees at Interior

The Washington Post is out with a front-page story today reporting that the Bush administration’s top lawyer in the Interior Department is converting the jobs of six political appointees in his office to civil service, effectively ensconcing them in jobs for the Obama adminstration — and for life, probably.

Don’t read too much into those bumper stickers. His influence will endure well beyond 1-20-09

Now, it should be said at the outset that the Clinton administration also did some of this. But high-ranking Interior officials and enviros told the Post’s Juliet Eilperin and Carol Leoning that these moves will leave Bush partisans able to affect a broad swath of policy, and particularly have an influence on the West. As the story notes:

The personnel moves come as Bush administration officials are scrambling to cement in place policy and regulatory initiatives that touch on issues such as federal drinking-water standards, air quality at national parks, mountaintop mining and fisheries limits.

Robert Comer, who the Post says was identified in a 2004 inspector general’s report for using “pressure and intimidation” to reach a grazing settlement with a Wyoming rancher, a settlement he pushed “with total disregard for the concerns raised by career field personnel.”

Matthew McKeown, formerly deputy attorney general in Idaho, where he sued to overturn the Clinton administration’s roadless rule for national forests. He has drawn the greens’ fire for promoting grazing and logging interests.